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At church today. Always the best time to photograph Mae.

Myron's camp trip. I took a photo of this collage of photos on the church wall.

Today was a swell day. We made it to church 15 minutes early and in time to claim our bench. Our family is so large now, that we have to get there early or we're out of luck for the comfy seats. Our favorite spot is the 4th row from the front, right in front of my little old biddies. There is a row of five very sweet older women that sit right behind us. They are all widowed and are close friends. I hope if Shane goes first that I will have the same kind of support system. They have family home evening together and go out to lunch. It reminds me of how my close little net of friends are now and how we might be someday. Hopefully not for a long long time. Today we had testimony meeting early because next week is Stake Conference. For those of you who don't know what testimony meeting is, it usually happens on the first Sunday of the month. As members we fast from dinner time on Saturday night until dinner time on Sunday. The money that we would have spent on those meals is then donated to the church for those that are less fortunate. It is also an opportunity to have a specific point focused on, and fasting shows our earnestness to have it resolved. Members of the congregation get up and bear their testimony that the church is true, or an instance where they felt the spirit etc. Today we had quite a few special testimonies that really touched my heart. The first was Elder Clark. He is a new missionary in our ward and has this intensity about him when he talks that really got my attention. He was offered a honorable discharge 3 months early from his mission to prevent him from losing his several scholarships to college. He turned them down just last month because he has faith that God will show him another way to pay for college and that he needs to be on this mission. I mean......wow! What an amazing example. He is in the right ward to announce that. With all the money in our ward, I think if we open a fund for his college tuition, he'll receive many donations. I have to check and see if this is even allowed first. Leslie, my sweet friend, you gave such a beautiful testimony about treating our families like special silverware, not like normal everyday silverware. What a beautiful analogy. We really should treasure our families and not treat them like normal every day fixtures in our lives. Families are a treasure. You don't have to be LDS to see that. Finally, another wonderful woman in our ward bore her testimony to the youth about holding on to the rod and not to be tempted. I know, this sounds like a normal everyday generic mormon line, but I assure you, hers came from personal experience. Her son has just been arrested for a crime he didn't commit, because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her testimony was profound and I was so thankful that my boys were wide eyed and listening as she described the situation and strongly warned our youth. So many others bore their testimonies as well and were equally as uplifting. These were just a few I really felt like sharing. That's all for now. Time to get cooking and then clean up. I'll write more tomorrow.